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L'ACADEMIA MVSICÆ PRO MVNDO VNO
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The Academia Musicæ Pro Mundo Uno is the legacy and summa of the cultural initiatives promoted by its founder, the Hungarian theologian and musician Josef Juhar. These efforts were built up gradually: the Circolo degli Amici di Roma (1958); the Centrum Internationalis pro Renovatione S. Stephani Rotundi (1960), to promote the restoration and ecumenical use of Europe's largest church with a central plan (5th century); the Festival delle Nazioni di Musica da Camera (1971) in Città di Castello; and A.M.O.R. – Accademia Musicale "Ottorino Respighi" (1978), which in 1996 was transformed into what is now ACADEMia MvsicÆ Pro Mvndo Vno.
The Academy's founders include key figures in the cultural and musical circles of the era, such as Elsa Respighi, Antal Doráti, Nino Rota and Carlo Zecchi. Eminent musicians such as Franco Ferrara, Antal Doráti, Lord Yehudi Menuhin and Giuseppe Di Stefano have been the Honorary Presidents of the Academy; High Patronages have been given by the Presidents of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Pontifical Council of the Vatican, and especially by its president for long years, His Eminence Paul Cardinal Poupard.
J.S. Bach's concept of music as Heilige Frau (Holy Lady Music) and the views of St Thomas Aquinas on the interdependency and indivisibility of Pulchrum et Verum et Bonum (Beautiful, True and Good) are the underpinnings for the cultural policy of the Academy internationally. The artistic production of A.M.O.R. (concerts and interpretation courses, scientific symposia and educational seminars on the Kodály method, the FESTA MVSICA PRO MVNDO VNO Festival [Assisi 1979–92, Orvieto 1992–95, Rome since 1996] and the MVNDVS CANTAT choral ecumenical encounters) has always been open to serving the cultural and spiritual renewal of Europe, growing cohesion between continents and world peace. The change of the Academy's original name to "Academia Musicae Pro Mundo Uno" reflects the culturally holistic rather than strictly musical nature of the Academy. Its two mottos, "MVSICA PRO MVNDO VNO" and "MVSICA PAX EST", highlight the Academy's efforts to promote music as a means of creating a better and more cultured world.
Between 1988 and 2001, the culminating point of the annual summer festival of the Academy was an annual concert in Castelgandolfo, south of Rome, in the honour and the presence of Pope John Paul II.
Between 1988 and 2001, the Academy had the honour and joy of presenting its work to Pope John Paul II in an annual symphonic and choral concert at the papal residence in Castelgandolfo. The Pope's words to the organisers during the first concert in the series represent a serious moral commitment for them even today:
I would like to express my heartfelt wish that the "Ottorino Respighi" music academy [the future Accademia Pro Mundo Uno] will continue to spread ethical and spiritual values through music, particularly sacred music: this is a highly noble and authentically cultural mission.
MVSICA PAX EST
MVSICA PRO MVNDO VNO